Most Influential: Jerome Powell

By the time his term as chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ends in May 2026, Jerome Powell will have served in that role across all or parts of three presidential administrations — Trump I, Biden, and Trump II.

This feature is a part of CoinDesk's Most Influential 2025 list.

Powell is likely to be mostly remembered for his battles with U.S. President Donald Trump, the man who first nominated him for the chair role in early 2018 (he was re-nominated for another four-year term in 2022 by President Biden), but his more lasting legacy could be his response to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. That flooding of liquidity into the financial system may or may not have eased the general public's pain during the lockdown era, but it surely helped create one of the greatest-ever rallies in financial assets (crypto among them) as well as seeding the nation's first great inflation since the 1970s.

Nearing the end of 2025, that inflation — though receded far back from its worst levels of 2022 when it was at a nearly double-digit percentage for much of the year — continues to create issues for monetary policymaking.

In fact, the Fed's final policy meeting of the year on Dec. 9-10 will be remembered as one of the most contentious in the central bank's history. Signs of economic slowdown, as evidenced by recent soft employment and manufacturing reports, would normally have the Fed acting with haste and near-unanimity to ease monetary policy by lowering its benchmark fed funds rate.

Inflation, however, remains stubbornly above the Fed's 2% target. In the weeks prior to the meeting, a number of Fed policymakers made no secret in their public comments about their disagreement over not just any further easing in December, but even October's rate cut.

Debate is fine, but the central bank has been a collegial group for decades, with dissents from the larger opinion so rare that even a single member voting against a policy decision would make headline news. Powell's Fed's ultimate decision to trim rates another 25 basis points last week drew three dissents — two from members who preferred holding policy steady and one who wanted to cut 50 basis points.

Crypto and the Fed — rallies and crumbles

The link between Fed policy and crypto markets is no secret: all things being equal, prices of speculative assets like crypto tend to perform better when monetary policy is being eased and tend to struggle when policy is being tightened.

It was certainly the case in 2020, when Powell's Fed's massive response to the COVID-19 pandemic helped send bitcoin on its epic run from about $3,000 to $65,000 13 months later.

It was also certainly the case in 2022, when bitcoin crumbled to $15,000 by late in the year as Powell's Fed — finally gaining religion about inflation — serially hiked its benchmark interest rate from 0.00% in January to 4% by December (the rate ultimately topped out at 5.25% in mid-2023).

Bitcoin's climb this year to a record high above $125,000 was accompanied by two rate cuts by the Fed. Its crumbling price in recent weeks, though, began just after the Fed's Oct. 28-29 meeting, at which Chair Powell said market expectations for further central bank easing were far too dovish.

Reaction was swift, with bitcoin falling from above $113,000 to $107,000 one day later and $80,000 three weeks later. There's been a modest bounce since at least the December rate cut came to fruition. Still, markets have greatly tempered expectations for further easing in January.

Moving on

Powell's term as Fed chair ends in May 2026, and President Trump has made clear he has no intention of re-nominating him. Recent leaks from the White House, in fact, suggest Trump could name Powell's successor prior to the New Year.

The move would, in effect, create a shadow Fed chair for Powell to have to deal with in his term's final months.

And while Powell's reign as Fed chair will end next spring, he could, if he chooses, remain as a member of the Board of Governors. His fourteen-year term to that body won't conclude until 2028.